York Hall

York Hall

This reinforced concrete framed building has a front elevation faced in red brick and Portland stone, with a Westmorland slate roof. It occupies a deep rectangular site and comprises an entrance range to Old Ford Road with two large halls and a collection of lower outbuildings behind.

The building was designed as a public leisure facility with three separate entrances serving different functions. The central entrance leads via a processional sequence of vestibule, entrance hall and crush hall to the principal public hall, which originally doubled as the first-class pool and is surrounded by a gallery accessed via twin staircases. The right-hand entrance originally served the second-class pool, slipper baths and Turkish baths in the basement. The left-hand entrance, now used for events, gave access to the public laundry and wash-house, which occupied a flat-roofed block alongside the main hall, now the bar. A boiler room once stood to the rear; it has been demolished although its chimney survives.

The Old Ford Road elevation presents the only intended public face of the building. It displays a symmetrical neo-Georgian façade of 17 bays arranged 2-5-3-5-2, with divisions marked by slight projections in the building line and prominently-placed downpipes. The outer and middle sections are constructed in red brick with a stone plinth, entablature and storey band. Windows are multi-pane sashes with keystones. Steps lead up to two pairs of side entrances, their stone architraves featuring fluted brackets and guilloche lintels. A dentil cornice runs the full width of the façade, with a balustrade above the middle section, which has a mansard roof with dormers. The three central bays project forward and are wholly stone-clad. Here are three round-arched entrance doorways with keystones and decorative ironwork in the tympana; above is a balcony on sturdy Greek key-moulded brackets, with more Greek key in the entablature to the central first-floor window. Above the cornice is a square-windowed attic storey, surmounted on the roof-ridge by a timber and copper cupola. On the left-hand side is a short return of three bays incorporating a side entrance. On the far right-hand side is an additional set-back bay of plain brick with a Diocletian window in a tall relieving arch.

The three central doorways with glazed hardwood doors and fanlights lead to the vestibule, lined with grey and yellow terrazzo panels. It contains brass balustrades with lamp standards and, on either side, small polygonal Art Deco ticket kiosks in hardwood with iron grilles. A triple doorway, surmounted by a bronze plaque commemorating the hall's inauguration in November 1929, leads to the entrance hall, a double-height space top-lit by a patterned glass dome. Stairs on either side with brass handrails and cross-braced metal balustrades give access to the gallery in the public hall. Below, another triple doorway opens into the crush hall, a barrel-ceilinged room with hardwood panelling; the end walls originally had fireplaces.

The public hall is a very large rectangular space with a stage at one end and a gallery running round the remaining three sides. The ceiling is a broad segmental vault with glazed panels and an egg-and-dart cornice. The gallery has ironwork balustrades with semicircular projecting bays and raked seating. The proscenium arch is flanked by pilasters with simplified acanthus capitals. The stage has been rebuilt and enlarged; the equestrian relief that once filled the tympanum above has been replaced with the Bethnal Green borough crest. The hall floor of maple boards was designed to be removed in sections to expose the swimming pool beneath, although this is no longer done. Behind the stage are dressing rooms and toilets, one of the latter retaining its original tilework and cubicle partitions.

The right-hand entrance originally served the second-class pool and slipper baths with separate men's and women's lobbies; the glazed timber enclosure dividing these survives, as do the two staircases with their ironwork balustrades and biscuit tiled dados. In the basement, the three chambers of the Turkish bath—tepidarium, calidarium and laconium—survive with their original biscuit tiles and marble-topped benches. Some original plant survives in the basement, including three large filtration chambers.

In front of the building on Old Ford Road are decorative area railings with granite plinth walls and piers, and curved granite walls flank the central entrance to the public hall. To the rear, in the parking area, the boiler-house chimney survives, a tall octagonal red-brick stack on a square base.